Starkey has announced a strategic commitment to work with governments and public health authorities across the GCC, Middle East and Africa to tackle the region’s growing hearing care challenge.

According to the company, hearing loss in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region currently affects around 78 million people and is projected to rise to 194 million by 2050. Unaddressed hearing loss also carries a major economic burden, with losses across the Middle East and Africa estimated at US$27.1 billion annually.

“For too long, hearing loss in our region has been treated as a personal inconvenience rather than the public health priority it is,” said Giscard Bechara, Director, Starkey MEA. “We have engineered the AI technology to change outcomes at scale. What turns that into national impact is government partnership, and that is exactly what we are committing to across the region. Our aim is to work with health ministries across the GCC, the Middle East and Africa to help shape national hearing strategies, from screenings to local audiology capacity, that reach the millions who are currently missed.”

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Starkey said it aims to support national hearing care strategies by helping expand screening programmes, strengthen audiology capacity, and integrate hearing care into primary health and healthy ageing initiatives. The company highlighted its Omega AI hearing platform, which uses deep neural network technology to improve speech clarity and track broader health indicators such as activity, falls, and respiratory rate.

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The company is calling on governments, hospital networks, and healthcare stakeholders across the region to collaborate on widening access to hearing care and making routine hearing screening part of preventive healthcare.